Monday, January 26, 2009

Air Quality Today is Better Than a Decade Ago

Economist Steven Landsburg writes in The Altlanic that "The air is cleaner than it was a decade ago..." and provides this EPA link.

The charts above display the ambient air quality trends for particle pollution ("particulate matter" or PM), and show that average PM concentrations have decreased over the years by -28% since 1990 for the first measure (PM10) and by -11% since 2000 for the second measure (PM2.5).

Bottom Line: Landsburg is correct, the air today is cleaner than it was in the past (according to EPA data).

Anecdotally I've been sure of this for the last few years. I can sit in traffic at a stoplight and smell that someone four or five cars away is smoking a cigarette. If cars were pumping out the emissions the way they used to, I'd never be able to smell the tobacco.